Spring Pasta - Campanelle Pasta with Asparagus, Peas and Pancetta

One of my morning daily blog visits is at "Stacey Snacks". Stacey made a beautiful spring farfalle pasta, with asparagus, peas, prosciutto and sage. I realized that I had leftover asparagus from my flat-iron steak dinner, and plenty of shallots. I decided that I would make pasta for dinner. I didn't have farfalle pasta, but I found a box of campanelle pasta (I'm a pasta collector, I admit).

I decided to make a similar version of Stacey's recipe, but I used a few extra ingredients. I have a huge jar of julienned sun-dried tomatoes, in oil, that was an impulse buy at Costco. I could feed all of Sicily on what's in the jar, so I wanted to make another dent in it. I also had an almost empty bottle of Sauvignon Blanc (I buy it at Trader Joe's for cooking purposes). My sage plant is just starting to come back with larger leaves, so I opted to cut some fresh Italian parsley instead.

I didn't measure, so I'll try and give you a general idea:

I didn't photograph all of my ingredients, because I was going by impulse at the time:

One of my favorite deli staples is pre-cut pancetta, from Trader Joe's. It's perfect for busy weeknight cooking. I thawed some frozen peas, chopped some fresh asparagus, garlic, shallots. Not pictured is fresh Italian parsley, about 1/4 cup of julienned, cut sun-dried tomatoes and a block of parmigiano-reggiano cheese.

While the pasta was cooking in salted water, I heated a little olive oil, and started to cook the pancetta:


Then I added the shallots for a minute, or two:



The garlic was added at the end, just until fragrant so that it wouldn't burn and become bitter.

Then I added the white wine (about 1/2 cup) and reduced that for a couple of minutes; then I added the sun-dried tomatoes and some chicken stock (about 1/2 cup). I let that reduce for a few minutes. In the meantime...


When the pasta was 2 minutes from being al dente, I tossed in the asparagus into the pot and then I drained the pasta and asparagus:


I added about 1/2 cup of heavy cream to the sauce:

...and let it reduce for a few minutes more.


Last, I added the pasta & cooked asparagus, peas and fresh Italian parsley, and I use a micro plane to grate fresh cheese.

Once again, dinner was ready in 30 minutes!

Oh, this was so good-- especially with the last of a bottle of Chardonnay we had purchased on my birthday trip to Napa, California. My son wasn't home, so the hubby and I enjoyed our pretty pasta dinner-- we had seconds. It was a spontaneous romantic dinner-- and so delicious.